


If It Weren't For You Meddling Chiss

by ZsforSs



Series: ISD Chimaera Mission Debriefings [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn - Timothy Zahn
Genre: Attempted Sexual Assault, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, Gen, Hey this is my first fic in a new fandom lets also try a genre I've never written before, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, I mine Legends for plot points, Identity Issues, Injury Recovery, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mission Fic, Mystery, OH BY THE WAY, So many red shirts, Sorry I never read you when you were canon, Stalked by a Monster, Thank you Legends, This is a Scooby Doo episode with more blood, Trans Eli Vanto, a bunch of minor characters die, or my attempt at it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-11 03:05:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15306066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZsforSs/pseuds/ZsforSs
Summary: “I agree,” Thrawn said. “Something is definitely going on in the Dapsen mine- but without more information we cannot determine what. I would like to investigate further,” Thrawn added. “Would you like to accompany me?”Eli couldn’t think of anywhere he would want to go less. Back to the Royal Academy maybe. Or Hoth.“You could stay here and oversee repairs if you prefer,” Thrawn said.He was giving Eli an out if he wanted one. But really, Eli knew he could hardly let Thrawn go to the creepy abandoned mine alone.“I’d rather be with you sir,” Eli answered.Thrawn smiled. “Then we had best make preparations.”





	If It Weren't For You Meddling Chiss

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if you think I need any other tags, or if you see any typos- I am my own beta.
> 
> Bonus Points to anyone who catches the reference to my favorite childhood book series.

If Eli wasn’t still riding high on his new promotion he would have been upset they’d been sent off to the far reaches of the Empire on their first patrol. As things stood now though Eli was nearly floating through his duties. 

Thrawn seemed equally happy as far as Eli could tell. He was seeing a lot more of what he called Thrawn’s ‘Chiss smile’ recently. A ‘Chiss smile’ was composed primarily of three features- the barest upward quirk of the lips, something hard to describe about his eyes being just a touch softer than his default expression, and a minute but overall loosening of the set of Thrawn’s shoulders.

Not even their gravity generator blowing a fuse could dampen his mood. Even though it forced them to stop for repairs at the closest Imperial base.

(Alright, maybe the entire ship being at 30% gravity for a few days had actually been kind of fun. Thrawn had made a general ship wide announcement telling the crew to be careful and then done nothing to stop people from bouncing around as they wished so long as it didn’t interfere with their duties.)

The closest base was on Lighnipi, a tiny mist-shrouded world just on the border of the Empire. The only reason the Empire bothered with it at all was that locked under it’s craggy rocks and dark oceans was a wealth of valuable minerals and gases.

The commander of Lighnipi Base was a nice enough middle aged woman with hooded eyes, black hair and a sense of perpetual harried energy about her.

“We had to order some of the parts for your ship,” she told them at their first meeting. “We put the order in when you first commed, but it’ll be at least another three days before they get in, and a few more days after that to get things all fixed up.”

Thrawn nodded. “Thank you Commander Yie. Is there anything my staff can assist you with while we wait for repairs?”

Eli rolled his eyes internally. Luckily the Base Commander was already shaking her head. “Not really Commodore. Not usually much to do out here- _yes, Lieutenant Hynern?_ ”

The lieutenant had stepped up beside the Base Commander, and gulped audibly when she snapped at him. “Commander,” he said. “We did get another missing person report from Dapsen Mine.” 

The Base Commander groaned. 

“Dapsen Mine?” Thrawn asked.

“It’s on the eastern coast,” Commander Yie explained. “Originally mined doonium and other rare metals. But the veins ran dry sometime about two years ago and the mine closed. On the last day of operation there was an accident- not sure exactly what happened but all six of the miners still working died.

Now it’s abandoned, but there’s always civilians going out there to see if the veins are really tapped or to find ghosts or something,” The Commander sighed. “Most of them don’t come back- not surprising considering it’s an _abandoned mine_. But every time we get a report we have to send a squad out. We’ve lost far too many troopers.”

“Have you reported the situation to Central Command?” Thrawn asked. 

“Repeatedly,” Commander Yie said. “I haven’t heard anything back… I’ll send you all the information we have- I’ll leave it to you if you want to investigate further or not.”

* * *

They retired to Thrawn’s office on Chimaera. 

“Have you reviewed the information Base Commander Yie sent us?” Thrawn asked.

“Yes sir.” Eli said.

“What do we have?”

“Not much sir,” Eli explained. “Dapsen Mine was never a very profitable venture, it wasn’t in an ideal location. They had to use a series of pumps to keep seawater out, and once their doonium veins ran out the mine was too expensive to keep running. 

“There was some kind of accident the last day of operation. Our only source of information comes from the sole survivor of the incident- the mine owner’s personal assistant. 

“The owner-Victor Dapsen- and his assistant were there to supervise the mine’s shut down. There were only four miners and an overseer working that day. According to the survivor, the miners tunneled into a natural cavern of some kind- and their comms went dead. The overseer and Dapsen elected to go down and investigate, leaving the assistant behind.

The emergency codes were used soon after to initiate the gas leak protocol and seal the lowest levels off. The assistant went for help, but by the time he reached assistance it was determined that anyone still in the mine would be dead. Recovery of the bodies was deemed too risky, so the generators were shut down and the mine was sealed off and abandoned.” Eli concluded.

Thrawn hummed thoughtfully. “There are a number of suspect elements in that story- not the least of which begin why the worker’s comms died if it was a gas leak.”

“I thought so too, sir. But if the accident was faked I don’t believe the personal assistant was in on it. He had some kind of breakdown shortly after the mine was condemned and was admitted to a psychiatric care facility where he still is now. _He_ at least believes everyone in the mine with him that day is dead.”

Thrawn nodded. “I agree. And since then?”

“At least four civilian explorations that we know about. The first two vanished completely, as did the recon squads Commander Yie sent in response. Both times she alerted Central Command and received no response. The third expedition lost two members before the remaining members fled. The recon squad for that expedition arrived, discovered the bodies of the two missing civilians laid out neatly in the entry hall, decided just recovering the bodies was enough of an investigation and left.”

“Irregular,” Thrawn stated with a hint of disapproval. Eli fought to contain his smile, Thrawn might not be a stickler for strict military protocol, but he hated sloppiness.

“I can’t say I blame them.” Eli admitted. “Not after the disappearances of the previous squads. It’s never expressly stated in the records but I believe Commander Yie may have ordered them to be extra cautious.”

Thrawn nodded again. “And the most recent incident?”

“A few days ago another group went in, found the corpse of and unknown solo explorer and decided to take the remains and leave. They’ve just identified the body as a local missing person- no one had any idea he’d decided to explore the old mine.”

“What are your thoughts on the situation?” Thrawn asked.

Eli smiled, time to see if he could deduce even half of what Thrawn had already. “My initial thoughts ran to fraud- claim the mine was empty and then continue working it in secret. But there's no sign of unaccounted for doonium in the local markets, and then why stage an accident at all? That attracted far more attention than just an empty mine would have- and all the people who would presumably profit are assumed dead. The disappearances are also attracting too much attention- unless getting the locals to think the mine is haunted was part of the plan?

“The confirmed fatalities are confusing too.” Eli continued. “The recovered explorers died from a broken neck – with evidence of strangulation- and exsanguination from having an arm ripped off. Those are violent, horrible deaths but an animal didn’t do that and weren’t accidents either. And then the autopsy on the most recent body says he froze to death? Lighnipi doesn’t get cold enough for that, not even in the winter.”

“I agree,” Thrawn said. “Something is definitely going on- but without more information we cannot determine what. I would like to investigate further,” Thrawn added. “Would you like to accompany me?”

Eli couldn’t think of anywhere he would want to go less. Back to the Royal Academy maybe. Or Hoth.

“You could stay here and oversee repairs if you prefer,” Thrawn said.

He was giving Eli an out if he wanted one. But really, Eli knew he could hardly let Thrawn go to the creepy mine _alone_.

“I’d rather be with you sir,” Eli answered.

Thrawn smiled. “Then we had best make preparations.”

* * *

They settled on a squad of six troopers, one doubling as their pilot. The next day they set out in a little quad-engine shuttle they'd borrowed from the base. It was an _old_ ship, pre-Clone Wars, but still flew well.

So the first part of the trip Thrawn wandered around examining the ship’s layout and mechanics while Eli reviewed reports in the ship’s major design oddity. There was a nook outside the cockpit just big enough for a few seats and an ancient holotable. The maintenance droid servicing the ship back at base had called the nook ‘the officer’s lounge’ which was hilarious because Eli was pretty sure this whole ship could fit in the Chimaera’s officer’s lounge.

Eventually Thrawn joined him, sliding into the spot across the table from Eli. The space was so tight Thrawn’s knees brushed against his.

“Commander,” Thrawn said. “What’s our estimate time of arrival?”

“Within the hour sir, weather permitting.” Eli said. “Our latest intel states the mine’s landing pad is still clear, we should be able to land right next to the mine itself.”

“Excellent.” 

The rest of the flight passed without incident. They reached the mine and were more than halfway through the landing sequence when the ship shuddered and the electrical system died. Along with all the other systems.

Eli wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not that they were already landing. They were closer to the ground and going slower, but that also meant there was less time to recover. At least they were all strapped in.

The pilot cursed as the ship dropped out of the sky, and Eli barely had time to brace himself before the ship hit the ground, and skidded across the damp runway. The pilot must have been able to keep the craft mostly level-

There was a tremendous rattling BANG, and the ship jerked abruptly to the left before finally stopping.

“Eli,” Thrawn said softly in the quiet after the crash, “Are you alright?”

Eli took a quick inventory of himself. “Yes sir, I’m fine.”

Everyone was fine, there were no fatalities or serious injuries during the crash. The ship on the other hand…

“Welp,” Eli said, examining the mangled metal where their engines used to be. “We appear to be grounded sir.” _One_ of their engines was mostly intact, but that wouldn’t get them off the ground.

Thrawn nodded, and turned to the trooper who had been piloting. “The shuttle’s other systems are still dead?”

“Yes sir,” The pilot said.

Eli shivered slightly in the steady rain. Why did they never have missions in warm places? The trooper’s armor was insulated and Thrawn never seemed to feel the cold, but Eli was pretty miserable.

Thrawn nodded. “Lieutenant Commander Vanto, you and the pilot set up the emergency beacon. The rest of the squad and I will begin our investigation of the mine- join us once you have finished.”

“Yes sir.” Eli said.

Eli and the pilot briefly attempted to get the shuttle’s emergency power back up, before giving up and setting up the secondary battery-powered beacon- it didn’t register any connections. 

Eli sighed and set the beacon to the standard auto-broadcast. They’d have to wait for rescue it seemed.

“Come on,” Eli told the pilot, heading towards the mine entrance. Maybe it would be warmer in there.

It was not warmer in the mine- though at least it was a little drier. The place had obviously seen better days. There was water dripping from the ceiling, the walls were warped and splotched with rust. The outer door was stuck open at a strange angle- the top open wider than the bottom- allowing dirt and debris into that first corridor.

The overhead lights flickered.

The pilot jumped a little. Eli understood his nerves, it was like walking into a horror holo.

There was a manual lift at the far end of the hall. Eli hadn’t been in a manual lift before, it felt strange… heavier somehow. Without the repulsion to cancel it out Eli actually felt the shift of the elevator dropping. It was weird, not quite unsettling, but he was glad most lifts were repulsor lifts nowadays.

The pilot seemed even more unsettled by the ride than Eli. He visibly relaxed when the lift stopped.

The doors opened onto a much longer hall. The floor here was clearer, but the rust was worse and the lights had failed. From somewhere down below there was the slow rumble of pumps.  The first half of the corridor was lit by battery operated lanterns the troopers had strung up at regular intervals. There were two doors down the hall. The one on the right was closed, but the door on the left stood open, one of the troopers stood outside it, at attention.  As they neared the doors Eli squinted through the gloom at the far, unlit part of the mines. It looked like there was another elevator down there leading further into the mines.

“Lieutenant Commander.” Thrawn said, as soon as they entered the left-hand door. The room was some kind of administration center. Five desks in all- only two of them looked like their built in consoles were intact. There were overturned chairs and storage containers scattered around along with the ever present dust and water damage. “Come have a look at this.”

Eli crossed the room and examined the control panel Thrawn was standing in front of. “ I have something to tell you.” Eli told him in Sy Bisti before turning to the panel.

The panel’s cover had obviously been ripped away sometime previously, it’s buckled remains were slumped in the corner. There was a rough map of the upper levels of the mine displayed on the wall. The short entrance hall, then this level- which was home to ‘Admin’ and off that ‘Dorms’ and on the other side of the corridor, ‘Medbay’- that must be the other door. And a third level that was just lined with six rooms labeled 'Animal Pens'.  Eli wondered what type of animals the mine had used, smaller operations like this often used local livestock instead of droids or mechanized carts.  


Eli frowned at the panel and examine the state of the power grid. The main generator was inoperable- the medbay and living quarters were locked in interrupted power mode. But the two backup generators were running- their connection to the upper levels must have been damaged, or the doors would have re-opened.

Eli dug a little deeper into the panel's systems. _This_ node had power, and the elevator was running- presumably off one of the backup generators.

Eli tried a few bypass commands and got an error prompt that directed him to a nearby wiring cabinet. Eli's dad had made sure he was able to fix a bunch of minor mechanical issues- very useful for space travel. If he could fix whatever was wrong with the wiring he could probably get the power re-connected.

The wiring cabinet was an absolute rat's nest- possibly literally. He found the wire he needed eventually. It was hot to the touch and appeared to have been yanked out of place- perhaps by the rat. It didn't look intentional or anything- about half the wires were loose or yanked out. Really the rat was lucky to be alive.

Thrawn looked over his shoulder. “Can you re-connect it?” he asked.

“I think so, sir, you should stand back though in case I electrocute myself.”

Thrawn frowned minutely, and appeared to be calculating the likelihood of Eli doing just that before nodding and stepping away.

Eli reconnected the wire. He was not electrocuted, though the wire did spark.

The indicator light on the door to the dorms lit up and from out in the hall he heard the sound of a door whooshing open. 

“Excellent work Lieutenant Commander.” Thrawn said.

Eli grinned.

“Back to your post.” Thrawn snapped- speaking to their sentry, who had stuck his head into the room to see what was going on. The sentry ducked away immediately.

“Lieutenant Commander Vanto and myself will investigate the Medbay. You two,” Thrawn said, pointing to the pilot and another trooper. “Head down to the third level and clear the animal pens. The rest of you do the same to the living quarters. Comm us immediately if you find anything.”

After a chorus of 'yes sirs' the troopers split off.

Thrawn lead the way to the medbay. As they left Admin Eli noted the hall lights were on now too- the ones that weren't broken. The hallway was still incredibly dark down by the lift.

The sentry ducked his head slightly when Thrawn passed. For his part Thrawn ignored the trooper. Eli threw them a quick smile as he followed Thrawn.

“You said you had something to tell me?” Thrawn asked in Sy Bisti.

Eli nodded. “Yes sir,” he explained in the same language. “It’s difficult to tell for certain given the state of the engines after we crashed- but the pilot thought we’d been hit by an ion pulse as we were landing.”

“He believes that is what shut down the controls?”

“Yes sir. I agree- based on what I saw of the engine remains. It looked like there was ion charge scarring.”

The medbay was mostly intact, the shelves had been raided, but most of the expensive medical equipment was still there.

“The doors locked when the main generator failed.” Eli mused. “For this much equipment to still be here that must have happened fairly soon after the mine was abandoned.”

They lapsed into a thoughtful silence. Eli turned to the computer terminal and began picking away at the files for information on whatever had gone wrong here. Thrawn meanwhile was busy examining the rest of the room- Eli had no doubt once he was done he’d be able to tell Eli a bunch of information he’d gleaned from the disarray.

Eli found the daily foreman’s log and began scanning it for useful information. 

Thrawn hummed thoughtfully. “Why would they have shot down the ship when it was already landing?” he mused. “Landing is a dangerous time for any ship, but we were already quite low…”

“Maybe they didn’t want us leaving too soon.” Eli suggested. The idea sent a shiver up his spine that Eli did his best to repress.

“That idea had occurred to me,” Thrawn admitted. “I also find it worrying that all of the entrances to the maintenance halls we’ve found so far have been sealed closed.”

“You think that's how-”

From somewhere not too far away came a bloodcurdling scream. 

Thrawn and Eli abandoned their investigations and ran toward the noise. They raced through the empty hall, past the broken desks in admin, and into the on-site living quarters. They found the troopers, all of them unharmed, in the hall not too long after. They were huddled together across from a door labeled ‘showers.’

“What happened?” Thrawn asked.

“There was-” one of the the troopers stuttered. “A _thing_. In there.”

Eli frowned at the troopers- they were highly trained for combat and shouldn't have been jumping at shadows like this- unless they actually _had_ seen something...

He glanced at Thrawn, who nodded once. Eli drew his blaster, got out his flashlight and opened the door. Thrawn fell into step behind him as he entered. 

There weren't lockers. Instead there were two rows of sectioned wire shelves with faded labels. Most of the lights were broken- though one on a bank of mirrors and broken sinks off to the left sputtered on and off. Glass and other debris crunched under their boots as they cleared the shelves.

He had expected the showers to be the standard open gallery like the ones at the Imperial Academy- but these showers were partitioned. There weren't doors, but slim fogged glass panels that hung from shoulder to mid-calf separating each shower head from its neighbors. A number of the partitions were broken, adding to the debris on the floor.

Eli and Thrawn carefully cleared the room, checking every stall. Eventually the stormtroopers followed them in, hovering by the shelves- their ingrained duty to keep an eye on their officers pushing back against their fear.

They found nothing- except at the very back of the room was a locked door labeled “Water Control Room; Maintenance Only.” Eli didn't bother trying to unlock the door- the top section of it- about a half meter was peeled open like someone had tried to roll the door up like a bedroll but had stopped only a short way down. 

It all but confirmed their suspicions that something was using the maintenance corridors to get around- but what?

Eli looked up- and touched Thrawn's elbow to get his attention. 

There was a trail of translucent purple slime on the ceiling leading from the broken door out across the room to the shelves and then back- doubling over itself. It looked very fresh.

So the troopers had seen something. Eli looked back at them- beside him Thrawn inhaled sharply. 

“Where is the sentry?” he said before Eli could ask.

The sentry... hadn't been in the hall when he and Thrawn had run through. Nor were they here with the scouting troops. So where had they gone?

Thrawn ordered everyone back to the main corridor. The troopers on the lower level weren't answering their comms , and when they made it back to where the sentry should be there was nothing- no blood or signs of struggle. He and Thrawn had been only meters away in the medbay but they hadn't heard anything either.

The lift leading further down into the mines suddenly shuttering to life.

Eli glanced at Thrawn, had the troopers the next level down heard their comms and were coming up?

The troopers milled nervously before shuffling into formation. They had their blasters drawn, but at least they weren’t pointing them at the lift.

They all waited in tense silence while the lift rose. After a moment of consideration Eli left his blaster out, just in case.  The lift gave an incongruous little ‘bing’ when it arrived. It almost made Eli laugh- then the doors opened.

There was nothing alive in the lift.

The body of a Stormtrooper was propped up against the back wall, lit by a single over-bright light. The cause of death was obvious- the bottom portion of the trooper’s helmet was shorn away, along with their jaw and a sizable chunk of their throat. Their armor was more red than white and a pool of blood spread out around them.

Thrawn stepped past him, moving to get a better look at the body. Eli _really_ didn’t want to but after a moment he followed Thrawn.

They only made it a few meters towards the body when something in the left wall _pinged,_ and the corridor began filling with steam.

Eli moved forward to keep Thrawn in sight even as visibility rapidly shrank. Thrawn drew his blaster. 

“Convenient,” Eli muttered. Thrawn nodded once sharply.

“Sirs?” one of the troopers called- and then there was an ominous startled yelp.

Eli never saw what hit him. One minute he was back to back with Thrawn, and the next moment he was flying through the air. He hit the ground... he wasn't sure where. The steam now shrouded the entire corridor and, disoriented, without any point of reference, Eli had no idea were he was. 

Someone was screaming- the sound cut off abruptly and there was silence. 

Eli got to his feet and quietly crept along the wall, trying to work out where he was, where anyone else was.  He found a wall and followed it a random direction, he needed to find out where he was first off.  He found the medbay first and stood in the door for a moment working out where to go to find the pipe spewing steam. He needed to _see_.

The pipe was on the other wall, about five meters up. Eli moved quickly, keeping his blaster drawn and trying as hard as he could to keep quiet. He passed a splatter of blood on the wall. 

The pipe was in a section of the wall that had been rusted away. As Eli examined the pipe he saw a valve had actually opened- allowing the steam to escape.  Eli grabbed the valve's handle one handed and tried to close it.

A scuffling sound came from over on his right. Eli did not curse out loud but he'd really have liked to. Eli let go of the handle and leveled his blaster in the general direction of the noise.

Thrawn stepped out of the dense mist.

Eli relaxed minutely despite himself. “Commodore, sir.”

“Lieutenant Commander.” Thrawn replied. “I see you’ve found the broken pipe.”

Eli smiled and holstered his blaster so he could use two hands on the valve. “Yes sir, I thought I’d get rid of this fog.”

Thrawn nodded once and turned to face out into the mist, covering Eli as he fiddled with the valve. He felt like he was fighting the mechanism the whole way but Eli finally got the valve shut. The steam stopped and the corridor slowly began to clear.

“Well done Commander,” Thrawn said.

There was a quiet murmur of suspicion in the back of his mind, one Eli couldn't even trace the origin of, so Eli shook his hands out and flexed them just so as he asked. “I can’t find anyone else sir, do you know where the troopers went?”

“I do not. We should go look for them. I believe we should clear the lower level first,” Thrawn said.

Eli nodded. “Maybe the troopers on the lower levels are alright.”

“Perhaps,” Thrawn said, not unkindly- but Eli could tell he didn’t think it likely.

Eli followed Thrawn, automatically falling into regulation covering position without thinking. Which was good because his mind was whirling.

Thrawn hadn’t acknowledged his status request. It could be nothing. Maybe he didn’t think he needed to reply because they were together now. Maybe Thrawn hadn’t noticed. 

... _Of course_ Thrawn had noticed, unless he was injured somehow. There wasn't any visible sign of injury though.

They made their way carefully to the now dark lift again.

Eli frowned as Thrawn pressed the call button. “Are we sure there’s no other way down?” He didn’t much want to share the lift with a corpse. 

“As far as I know there is not. I assume the creature is using the maintenance corridors, but none of the maps show a service lift. This appears to be the only way up or down.”

Eli chewed on his bottom lip. He had seen the maps too of course. He shot Thrawn a look but the Chiss didn’t seem to notice. Again.

“You weren’t injured during the fight earlier sir?” Eli asked. He didn’t think Thrawn would conceal an injury like that- but he also knew Thrawn wasn’t one to repeat himself. 

Thrawn smiled at him. “I am fine,” he said. The smile was fine- very restrained, very Thrawn- but it sat wrong with Eli somehow.  They were just tiny things, but they nagged at Eli until the lift arrived.

The body was gone. There was a patch of streaky blood on the floor- it still looked damp- but nothing else. Something had obviously dragged the body from the lift. Eli hoped desperately it was the other troopers.  Thrawn stepped confidently into the lift ignoring the blood. Eli sidled in after him, avoiding the tacky patch on the ground.

The ride down was a terrible tense thing, not just because of the blood, or the fact that this was surely the loudest lift in existence.

The lowest floor was empty- not even blaster marks on the walls to show that the other troopers had been here.

Thrawn stepped cautiously out into the hall, and Eli followed. There were six animal pens on this floor- divided up with three on each wall. There was nothing in the first set of cells. Eli even ducked into one to double check. The cell was re-enforced durasteel, as was the door- which was almost a foot thick.

The lift further down into the mine was between the first and second set of cells- it didn't appear to have power, and Eli couldn't find any way to reconnect it to the power grid- not without doing some serious re-wiring.

As they moved down the corridor without any sign of the troopers Eli got increasingly uneasy. As they passed the next set of cells he looked down and noticed there were faint drag marks on the dirt floor. They seemed to lead towards the end of the hall but they were coming from the animal pen across the way.

Eli went to investigate, from the door of the cell nothing seemed out of place. As he stepped into the cell though, Thrawn grabbed him by the back of his uniform and hauled him back from the door just as a large plank embedded with sharped bits of metal swung forward, blocking the doorway. The plank swung back up as Thrawn pulled Eli away- but not before Eli saw the desiccated corpse embedded on the spikes.

“I've got you.” Thrawn said stepping between Eli and the sprung trap.

For a moment there was no suspicion, just shock. Eli let Thrawn maneuver him back into the wall, letting him lean there. “What- What happened?”

“Are you alright?” Thrawn asked, lifting Eli's chin to make him look up at Thrawn.

“Yeah, I'm- I'm alright.”

“Good, good.” Thrawn leaned down and pressed his lips to Eli's.

Eli kissed back on auto-pilot and through the terrified white noise in his head noted that this was nice, very nice.

It was too bad this wasn't Thrawn.

Definitely-Not-Thrawn grabbed Eli's hip with his free hand. The shiver that crawled up Eli's spine was not a good thing, but Definitely-Not-Thrawn seemed to think it was, he hummed against Eli's mouth and tried to deepen the kiss.

Eli turned his head away and fisted a hand in Definitely-Not-Thrawn's tunic.

“Is this the best time for this?” he asked, not having to pretend to be breathless.

Hopefully his performance was good enough to keep the Thrawn-thing from noticing him drawing his blaster.

“It's alright,” Not-Thrawn murmured. “I won't let anything happen to you.”

That was the _dumbest_ thing Eli had ever heard, and it wasn't even remotely comforting- wouldn't have been even if this really was Thrawn. 

Eli shoved the fake Thrawn away from his face and held him at arms length with the hand fisted in his tunic.

“That was a stupid answer.” He leveled his blaster at the fake. “Let's try a different question. Who are you and where's the _actual_ Thrawn?”

There was an almost palpable shift in atmosphere. Not-Thawn regarded him seriously- with eyes that had gone solid _black._

Eli's hip stung, but Eli ignored it. He'd deal with the bruises later.

“You sure you want to do this Eli?” the thing said in a voice that was too high to be Thrawn's. “I'd rather not hurt you.”

Eli just tightened his grip on the thing's tunic. “I'm waiting.”

The thing, which was looking less like Thrawn by the second, grinned- it's mouth stretching too wide and full of razor-sharp teeth. 

It lunged at Eli's face.

Eli fired.

The thing shrieked and stumbled back- ripping itself out of Eli's grip.

Eli didn't follow, he turned and darted for the lift- sitting open at the end of the hall.

He almost made it. As he was passing the first pen something grabbed him and flung him sideways into the pen's door panel. He felt something snap in his back and just had time to think that that was bad, very bad, when the creature that looked like a cross between Thrawn and a shadow rancor picked him up by the neck and slammed him into the panel again.

He couldn't _breathe,_ and his back was in agony, but he still had his blaster. So he shot the creature again.

He hit the ground with a jarring thud that whited out his vision even as he gasped for air.

The creature was shrieking again, but for a moment before he blacked out Eli swore he could hear familiar voice shouting his name.

* * *

Eli woke up slowly. He felt kind of like his head had been stuffed with fluff. He spent a long time staring at the ceiling before he realized why it looked so interesting. He didn’t recognize it.

“Oh,” he croaked. _…Why did his voice sound like that?_

There was someone sitting beside him, their head resting on the sheets by his hand. He only noticed them when they jerked up as he spoke- as if they’d been asleep.

It was Thrawn. _Thrawn_ had been sleeping at his bedside? Wow. Was he dying? He felt distinctly not great, but not _dying_ bad. 

Thrawn was staring at him. “ _Eli,_ ” he breathed.

Eli smiled. “Hey.” He raised a hand and patted at Thrawn’s cheek. “You ok?”

As soon as his hand touched Thrawn’s face one of Thrawn’s own large hands caught it and held it there against his cheek. Eli blushed. That was, Thrawn probably shouldn’t have done that, but Eli probably shouldn’t have touched his face anyway. 

“You’re asking _me_ if I’m alright?” Thrawn asked. He sounded a strange mix of incredulous and awed.

“Yes?” Eli said. Maybe that was a rhetorical question.

“Eli,” Thrawn said. Eli, not his rank. “Do you know where you are?” He sounded worried.

Eli looked around the room- in a medbay obviously but not a familiar one. “No,” he admitted. 

Thrawn squeezed his hand. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

What _was_ the last thing he remembered? They were on a mission right? Yes. They were- 

The memories came back all at once. Eli yanked his hand away and tried to roll away. Thrawn grabbed him immediately and held him down. 

“Eli! Don’t move! You are still hurt! _Please._ ”

Moving did hurt- a lot actually- but Eli kept fighting. “Why?” he hissed. “You could be-”

“Your birth name is Elise.”

Eli stilled completely, and frowned up at Thrawn. It was definitely Thrawn at least. He hadn’t told anyone else that name in… ever.

“My apologies,” Thrawn said, “It seemed the fastest way to get you to believe me.” He let Eli go. “Do not sit up,” he added.

Eli nodded. “I feel like I got trampled by a herd of banthas,” he admitted. “What happened?”

“After we were separated I was ambushed by our attacker. They are most adept at stealth attacks- I was rendered unconscious almost immediately.”

Eli was torn between amusement and concern. Very few things could catch Thrawn completely off guard. Eli glanced nervously around the room. Thrawn took Eli’s hand and squeezed. “You are safe. We’re safe. The creature is currently unconscious and locked in one of the animal containment cells.”

Eli relaxed, remembering the ridiculously thick walls of the cells. 

Thrawn fumbled at something on the side of the medical bed Eli was on. He could have let go of Eli’s hand and reached whatever it was easier- but he didn’t seem to want to. Eli didn’t much want him to either.  After a moment Eli’s bed began to shift, gently maneuvering him into a reclined seated position. From this vantage point he could see the rest of the medbay- and had a better view of Thrawn. 

His commanding officer looked tired for the first time that Eli could recall. He started to ask again if Thrawn was alright but Thrawn beat him to it. “How’s your back?”

Eli shifted slightly- and realized he was wearing some kind of brace. There was the thick press of bacta bandages all up his spine and around his throat. That made sense, from what he could recall. He wasn’t sure why he was getting a blood transfusion though, noticing the IV and blood bag in his other arm for the first time. Oh, and he was in some kind of medical gown. 

“Sore,” Eli admitted, trying to ignore that Thrawn must have undressed him. “Tingling.” That was the bacta. “Nothing hurts too much.” He wriggled his toes just in case. 

Thrawn relaxed, just the barest fraction. “Good. Your back is broken in several places. You’re stabilized, but you should avoid excessive movement. And you cannot stand or sit up more than this until proper medical staff can clear you.”

Eli nodded. “And when will that be?” They’d never gotten a reply from their distress signal.

“We have now failed to check in for approximately an entire day. There should be a search and rescue team enroute,” Thrawn said.

“Unless base command thought the Chimaera crew was monitoring us because they were lazy, and the Chimaera thought base command was because it’s actually their job. Then no one might notice we’ve gone radio silent until the repairs are done in… four days.”

Thrawn nodded. “Our distress beacon is too weak to reach the base at it’s current output. I have not been able to increase the beacon’s output.”

“Alright,” Eli sighed. “So we’ve got time to finish story hour.”

Thrawn raised an eyebrow. Eli grinned and flapped his free hand at him. “You had just been knocked out by the big scary monster. What happened next?”

Thrawn smiled, and his thumb stroked along Eli’s fingers because they were _still holding hands_.

Eli very firmly resolved not to think about it until he knew what else had happened.

“I awoke some time later locked inside the deep freezer in the kitchens. I was bound- but not terribly well. I suspect out assailant was unfamiliar with Chiss and did not know the cold was less of a hindrance to me. I broke my bonds and escaped the freezer as well. There was a manual way to open the freezer from the inside.”

Eli nodded. “Most commercial or industrial freezers have those.”

“Our attacker had partially disassembled it- but left the pieces in the freezer.”

Eli scoffed. _Really?_

Thrawn nodded and continued. “Once I was out of the freezer I set about trying to locate you without attracting the creature’s attention again. As we suspected he had set up the maintenance corridors and computer system to spy on the main corridors and move around without being seen. I- I apologized Eli,” Thrawn hesitated. Eli couldn’t have kept the surprise off his face if he’d wanted to. Two apologies in a day?! Eli squeezed Thrawn’s hand as he continued. “When I located you you were already in the company of the shapeshifter disguised as me. I did not intervene immediately. Since they were trying to fool you instead of simply incapacitating you I thought I might be able to glean information on their motives if I observed for a while. I did not anticipate they would…assault you like that.”

Eli vividly remembered that. When Maybe Not Thrawn had kissed him and turned immediately into Oh Kriff Definitely Not Thrawn.

“It’s alright,” Eli said. “I had my suspicions before that, I was playing along with them too.”

Thrawn didn’t seem comforted. “It was an unnecessary risk to take with your life. They might not have been violent then, but they had shown an obvious disregard for life before. I should have intervened sooner.”

Eli squeezed Thrawn’s hand again. “I’m not upset. I probably would have done the same thing.”

Thrawn stared down at their linked hands and said nothing. “What happened after I blacked out?” Eli prompted. 

“The creature was severely weakened by the two shots you put in them. It seemed unable to transform into non-humanoid shapes while injured. As such I was able to subdue it long enough to force it in one of the animal containment cells and lock it in. Then I brought you to medbay.”

Eli nodded. “Why am I getting a transfusion by the way? I understand all the spine stuff, but I don’t remember bleeding.”

“You had some large cuts on your hip. I believe when you drew your blaster the creature’s hands became more claw-like. My fight with the creature took longer than I would have liked. You bled quite a bit.”

“Are you alright?” Eli asked, circling around to his first question again.

“I have some small cuts and bruises, nothing serious,” he said. 

Maybe it was because he’d been close to Thrawn for so long, maybe he was still paranoid from earlier but something still seemed off. “You sure?” he pressed. “You seem… disquieted.”

“Disquieted?”

“Sy Bisti doesn’t have a similar word. Disquiet is anxiety or worry, but subtler.” 

Thrawn’s lips quirked again. “This whole mission has been disquieting has it not?”

Eli nodded and didn’t ask again. If Thrawn didn’t want to share he couldn’t make him.

Instead Thrawn ran through the current plan for Eli's recovery- until they were rescued of course. They had almost no bacta- hence the bandages, and they were low on painkillers, but they did have a vast selection of splints and bandages to work with.

“Do you feel well enough to be left on your own for a while?” Thrawn asked eventually. “I want to go speak with the … prisoner. If that's possible.”

Eli frowned, but nodded. “I'll be alright. Be careful ok?”

* * *

When Thrawn approached the small window into the cell he was met by his own face.

“Hello handsome,” the creature said. “I bet you have some questions.”

This answered several of them. Obviously the creature was sentient.

“You're responsible for all the people that have gone missing exploring the mines.”

The double grinned, a strange and unsettling expression to see on his own face. “Yes.”

“You hit our ship with an ion blast as we were landing.”

“Couldn't have you leaving to get reinforcements could I?”

“What did you intend to do after trapping us here?”

“I was just going to kill you all.” The thing said casually. “But then you walked in _Commodore Thrawn_ , and I’d never seen anything like you before. What exactly _are_ you by the way?”

“Pantoran.”

“Liiiiar!” the creature sang. “Wrong eyes, wrong bones, wrong _smell_.”

“Smell?”

“I have an excellent nose,” the thing said. It’s face-Thrawn’s face-stretched and morphed to accompany the distinct noses of a dozen different species. “A few of them. A lot of my kind aren’t so dedicated you know. It takes work to get the finer details right- anatomy books, sometimes vivisections- but enough about me. Tell me about you dear. Or your species anyway- Near Human obviously, use to colder climates if the ease you escaped the freezer is any indication… Do your eyes see the same spectrum as humans?”

“I see no reason to tell you that.”

“Awww… I’m just trying to be friendly. I answer your questions, you answer mine, we get a nice rapport going…”

Thrawn glared at the creature.

It sighed. “No fun that’s what you are. I bet your little friend would have played along. It’s a shame he made me angry.”

“I thought your interest was in me?” Thrawn asked despite himself.

“It _was_. Your little friend- _Eli_ ,” the creature purred in Thrawn’s voice, “Was it? Was a lovely thing though. And it had been a while since I’d kept a pet. _And then_ he went and bypassed the main emergency locks. I’m no slouch with electronics and programming, I’m sure you’ve noticed. But I'm not so good with mechanics and wiring. I’ve been trying to get the medbay open for _ages_. I thought I’d hit the jackpot- a new alien to learn and a pretty toy to play with-who might be able to crack the lock on a few other doors I’ve been having trouble with. We would have had such fun together until I got bored and killed both of you.

“I’m sorry I killed him if that makes you feel better,” The thing added. And then it features shifted again. Thrawn’s face morphing into another very familiar face. 

Eli- or rather a perfect doppelgänger of him- smiled. “You could let me out,” the Eli-thing said. “I’m still healing I can’t do anything too big. I’d be good for you. Good _to_ you.” The false Eli winked.

Thrawn abandoned the conversation, unwilling to engage with the creature further.

* * *

“I’m dying.” Eli announced. His head hung off the end of the bed and his feet were on the pillow.

Thrawn took in his flat delivery and upside down pout. He was almost certainly speaking figuratively. Thrawn double-checked the medibed’s readouts just in case.

“You don’t appear to be dying. Are you in pain?”

Eli huffed. “No I’m fine.” 

Thrawn raised an eyebrow. “Krayt spit.”

Eli grinned at him for a moment- a strange sight upside down-before propping himself up very carefully on his hands. “I’m sore. It’s fine though.”

“Eli-”

“The bacta cuts the worst of it and you said we were running low on pain meds. I’ll live.”

Thrawn nodded. Eli was right, and presumably would know if he needed medication.

“Unless I die of boredom first,” Eli added.

Thrawn smiled. “I see. Unfortunately I’m not sure how to assist.”

Eli lowered himself back down and then held his hands out. “Can I use the console?”

Thrawn considered. He’d been planning on going through the computers himself, but it would serve to distract Eli from his pain, and allow Thrawn to keep a closer eye on their assailant. Thrawn activated the repulsion lifts on the medibed and maneuvered Eli over to the terminal. 

“Yeeesssss!” Eli hissed. He gently rolled himself over onto his stomach. Thrawn didn’t miss the way he winced slightly as he did so. The medical gown was split up the back. Thrawn pointedly focused on Eli’s head, the fine brown hair catching oddly on the bacta bandage around Eli’s neck, as he grabbed one of the blankets and pulled it over Eli’s back.

Eli glanced up at him, his face heating. “Thanks.”

Thrawn sat beside Eli and watched him dig through the computer. Eli looked through old invoices and yield reports- and stopped suddenly to look up at Thrawn.

“Do we have food?” Eli asked. “Clean water?”

“Yes,” Thrawn said. “ I retrieved the emergency supplies from the ship and there were also some here in the medbay. We have supplies for at least a month.”

“If we're here for a month just put me out of my misery.”

“No.”

Eli laughed. “ When's the last time you ate?” he asked.

Not since before they had left the base. Now that he thought of it he was rather hungry. “Do you want food?” he asked.

“Is there chocolate?” Eli asked, and went back to the computer.

There was. Thrawn picked out a protein bar for himself, grabbed a water bottle, and selected a chocolate protein bar for Eli.

Thrawn helped Eli lay back on his back again and the pair ate in comfortable silence.

“...We should feed the prisoner.”Eli said. 

He was right. Thrawn didn't much want to go talk to the creature again, but he was hardly able or willing to send Eli.

Eli patted his leg in a comforting fashion. “Take it the old gross stuff from the medbay's supplies.”

Thrawn chuckled.

“We should confirm my identity when I come back.” Thrawn said.

“That's a good idea,” Eli said. “Where's my blaster?”

Thrawn fetched it for him, along with a water bottle and another protein bar . Then he made his was back to the lower level.

* * *

“Awww.” The creature said, still wearing Eli's face. “You did miss me.”

Thrawn dumped the ration bars and water bottles in the double-locked feed chute. Once his side of the chute was sealed he released the door on the other side, dumping the food onto the floor of the containment cell.

“I knew you cared.” the shapeshifter teased.

He had only located four of the Stormtroopers’ bodies. One of them had been …partially eaten as far as he could tell. Of the others Thrawn had found only an incredibly large pool of blood.

When he'd awoken in the deep freeze it had been full of bodies, one of them, huddled in a corner, had been a young man with brown hair and skin. It had not been Eli of course, but it until he'd examine the body more thoroughly he had not been sure.

There had been a terrible half hour, immediately after he’d gotten Eli to the medbay, where Eli’s lower extremities hadn’t responded to stimuli. But at last the anti-inflammatory had worked, the swelling had gone down, and Thrawn had been able to confirm that while Eli’s back was broken in three different places his spinal cord was intact.

“You need to be alive to stand trial,” Thrawn said. He looked at the shapeshifter again, and froze.

The creature was still wearing Eli’s face- but it had made changes. Eli now had the black hair, blue skin and red eyes of a Chiss.

“Do you like what you see?” the creature purred in Sy Bisti.

Thrawn turned and stalked towards the lift. The creature’s laughter- Eli’s but mean in a way he’d never heard from Eli himself- echoed after him.

“Was that a ‘no’?” the creature called after him. “Or a ‘More than I should?’ My offer still stands darling, I wouldn’t want you to get lonely!”

* * *

“Hello sir,” Eli said, as Thrawn entered the Medbay. He was still at the computer. Eli idly picked up his blaster and pointed it at Thrawn without looking away from the screen.

“Eli, the Imperial Reproductive Protection Act is your least favorite law currently enforced. Particularly subarticle 91.”

Eli laughed, “Well I’ve never read the entire Imperial Legal Code, but that’s a safe assumption. How’s our guest?”

“Unpleasant,” Thrawn admitted. “Have you found anything useful?”

Eli grinned. “Dyrron Luwe,” he said. “Our murderous friend is named Dyrron Luwe. They’re a Shi’ido.”

Thrawn came over and sat beside him on the bed.

“I’m unfamiliar with the species.”

“They’re from the Unknown Region- presumably not the same part of it you are. They’re shapeshifters. Capable of altering their physical appearance greatly- even gaining or losing mass. They can take animal forms and grow clothing- basically  _ everything _ . I found the old employee records, and guess who was part of the mining crew working that last day?”

The record Eli pulled up showed a male Besalisk as the ID image- but the species line did list “Shi’ido.” 

“This must be the ‘monster’ that attacked the others.” Thrawn mused. “But why?”

“The last transmission from the miners said they’re found some kind of natural cavern. Maybe there was something in it Luwe didn’t want to share.”

Thrawn nodded. It was a good theory based on their available evidence.

“Do you know anything else about Shi’ido?” Thrawn asked.

“Not really sir.” Eli admitted. “But I did find something else. The main generator didn’t fail. It was rerouted somewhere. The maintenance computer network was also severed from the main network. I’m running a patch up program now. I think once we’re hooked up to the maintenance system again we’ll be able to find out where the generator’s power is being routed.”

“Good work Eli,” Thrawn said. “Keep looking.”

* * *

Eli couldn't dig up anything else until the patch went through and he could get access to the maintenance systems. Eventually he laid back on the bed and sighed. “Well what should we do while we wait?”

“I think I want to investigate the lower level some more.” Thrawn said. “I suspect Luwe must have another way to access the mine without using the elevator.

Following his deductions Thrawn left Eli behind- something his instincts vehemently disapproved of. It would be fine, he reminded himself. Eli had his blaster and the creature- Shi'ido- was locked up. He pressed on deeper into the mine.

The shapeshifter wasn't visible in the window as Thrawn passed, but he didn't stop to investigate.

As Eli had said, the lift was inoperable. He continued down to the end of the hall and through the maintenance corridor access door. There was a similar camera feed set up to the one he'd found on the first floor here, and off to the right was another unmarked shaft- this one sloped down gently. Another of the creature’s shortcuts. But where did this one lead?

Thrawn cautiously investigated. It became clear fairly quickly that there were no traps this far into the mine. Likely no one made it this far.

After several switchbacks the tunnel ended in what appeared to be a storage room that had been re-purposed into a...nest of some sort.

There was a pile of bedding- what appeared to be every mattress, pillow, and blanket in the mine. On the wall above the 'bed' was a smeared bloody humanoid hand print. There was another computer here- the set up as detailed as the others he had found. 

The nest opened up into the mine proper. Based on what he had gathered from the more detailed map Eli had found him the location of the 'incident' was just ahead.

He passed a pile of bones and old cloth. Likely the remains of the miners originally trapped here. The pumps were louder here, a continuous dull roar. 

He found the partially caved-in portion of the mine. A path had been cleared and temporary supports added allowing him to walk quite easily into the natural cavern the miners had discovered. As he entered the cavern he noticed several crates of explosives stacked against the wall.

The rest of the mine- this area the Shi'ido frequented anyway- had been well-lit, the old lighting kept up and running. But the cavern was dark.

Luckily Thrawn could make out enough to see there was a large standing light set up not too far away. He carefully edged to it and turned it on.

The walls and ceiling- some 10 meters high- were lined with crystals.

Kyber mostly, but there were patches of other gems- blue, green, dusky yellow- all over the cavern. The cave curved down and to the right, hiding the entire space from view but just the crystals Thrawn could see now were enough to outright buy a small planet. There was a faint path in the cavern floor and after a moment of consideration Thrawn headed deeper into the crystal cave.

The cave went on another 200 meters or so before it dropped into a submerged area. It likely opened up to the ocean eventually- considering both the fish Thrawn saw in the water and the small multi-enviros ship that was parked just before the cave sunk into the water.

There were a number of cargo containers here as well- all loaded with crystals.

The ship itself was registered to another missing local woman- reported missing a year or so ago by her landlord when she failed to pay rent- so who knew how long she had actually been missing.

...He had been down here too long.

He left the store room. He should go back to medbay- Eli would want to know what he found.

He hoped the Chimaera came looking for them soon, and not just for Eli’s sake. He had endured a type of exile before. This was worse. He was not alone, but having a seriously injured Eli _and_ that creature in the cells was far more harrowing than being alone had been.

As he passed by Luwe's holding cell the creature called “Find anything interesting?”

“You originally convinced the other miners to side with you against the owner and overseer didn't you?  Your comms didn't die you just weren't answering them.” Thrawn asked.

“Poor idiots actually thought we could all _share._ If Jarris hadn't set off the gas leak protocol before I took care of him things would have been so much easier. Instead I had to improvise this haunted mine scheme while I cleaned out the cavern. _”_

“You did all this for financial gain?” Thrawn said. He'd suspected this for a while but something about hearing it from Luwe made it worse. “For some rocks in a cave? You killed all those people over money? You almost killed Eli over-”

“Almost? Is the poor little thing laid up in that mess of a medbay?” the Shi’ido popped up, wearing Thrawn’s own face again. They bared their teeth. “Maybe I’ll cut you up right away and just play with Eli- tell me what’s wrong with him? Is he bedridden? Oh that would be fun. I’ll have to pay him a visit when I get out of here…I think I’ll keep your face when I see him again,” The Shi’ido mused. “I like the way he looks at you.”

“You aren’t getting out of there.” Thrawn snapped.

The Shi’ido laughed- a high-pitched shrieking giggle. “Maybe I’ll keep you around for a while after all, so you can watch.”

Thrawn _hissed_ at the Shi’ido- and immediately regretted it.

The Shi’ido’s face-still his own- lit up. “Ooooo! That was fun. Do it again. Your vocal range isn’t the same as a humans is it?”

Thrawn turned to leave, there was obviously no point in speaking to Luwe. They weren’t giving anything up.

* * *

He expected Eli to be awake- possibly attempting to do something he shouldn’t with his bad back- but Eli was asleep, flat on his back with his hands folded against his chest. Thrawn was intimately familiar with how Eli slept, having shared a room with him for a number of years, and this was atypical. Eli most often curled up on his side, knees tucked up to his chest as if trying to take up as little space on the bed as possible.

As the door shut behind him Eli blinked awake. He smiled sleepily at Thrawn and held out a hand. “H’llo sir.”

Thrawn looked down at Eli. “We didn’t verify my identity.”

Eli hummed. “Are you an evil doppelgänger here to do unspeakable things to me?”

“No.”

Eli raised his chin in mock defiance. “Prove it, sir.”

Thrawn laughed despite the graveness of the situation, and watched Eli’s eyes light up triumphantly. Brightening Thrawn’s mood had obviously been on Eli’s agenda. 

“I had to alter my plans considerably when Captain Parck brought you down with him.” Thrawn said, at last. “There were several traps in the hut, but I could hardly set them off with you in there. Both a child and apparently my only hope for a translator.”

“I was 17,” Eli pouted. His face heated.

“You were a Cadet,” Thrawn pointed out. “And you were smaller than the other troops. It was a reasonable assumption.”

“I am not small,” Eli protested. This was technically correct. Eli was quite average by both human and Chiss standards- but his last growth spurt had come during their time at the Royal Academy. The Eli he had first met had been four inches shorter than this Eli was.

Thrawn brushed an unruly strand of hair off Eli’s forehead. “You shouldn’t have been down there at all. You do not take a cadet with no real combat experience down onto an uncharted planet with an unknown possibly hostile alien presence.”

Eli smirked and saluted him,“ Yes sir... You didn’t even need a translator anyway,” Eli added.

“I did,” Thrawn insisted. “Though perhaps not as much as I made it seem at first. You have always been a great help to me Eli. Sometimes in ways I myself did not anticipate.”

Eli bit his lip. He took a deep breath, reached up, grabbed his shirt, and pulled Thrawn down into a kiss.

This sudden move stymied him for a moment but Thrawn recovered quickly. After all one of Thrawn’s favorite things about Eli was his tendency to catch Thrawn off guard with his boldness. 

Thrawn pressed back into the kiss before Eli could get the wrong idea. They spent quite some time exploring each other’s mouths with hard, searing kisses that left them both breathless when they finally stopped. 

Both Eli’s hands were pressed flat against Thrawn’s chest. He could almost certainly feel Thrawn’s racing heart. Thrawn’s right hand gripped Eli’s uninjured hip- to keep him from moving and straining his back too much yes, but also because he had found himself increasingly distracted by the desire to just _hold_ Eli.

His left hand carded through Eli’s hair- another thing he has wanted to do for longer than he cared to admit.

Eli was blushing beautifully and looked up at him with wide dark eyes. “I have the worst kriffing timing,” he groaned.

Thrawn chuckled and pressed a kiss to Eli’s neck, just below his ear. “I will admit this is not ideal, yet I am glad anyway.”

Eli grinned. 

Mindful of Eli’s injuries Thrawn didn’t stay on top of him long. He rolled over to lay beside Eli, one hand staying in Eli’s hair and the other across Eli’s flat stomach.

Eli slid a hand over Thrawn’s.

Thrawn kissed Eli’s temple next. “Once we are away from here and you are well I have _plans_ for you, Lieutenant Commander.” He murmured.

Eli shivered, and kissed Thrawn again. When they pulled apart again Thrawn took in Eli’s shadowed eyes and the yawn he stifled with his free hand.

“You should rest,” Thrawn said.

“Tried to,” Eli admitted. “M’not sleeping great.”

Thrawn considered. “I will get you a dose of pain medicine. Rest is essential to your recovery.”

“But we were-” Eli started to protest.

“Rationing only makes sense to a point. You need sleep and you cannot sleep as you are now.”

Eli nodded, and Thrawn carefully extracted himself from the bed.

When he returned with the syringe Eli was pouting at the computer. “I was going to try to re-route the power from the pumps to the distress beacon. To boost the signal.”

“A good idea,” Thrawn said. “But it can wait. The computer isn’t going anywhere.” He sat beside Eli on the bed. 

“And neither are we.” Eli sighed. He offered Thrawn his arm and Thrawn administered the medication. Eli immediately relaxed, releasing tension even Thrawn hadn’t noticed he was carrying.

“You should rest too.” Eli said as Thrawn set the needle aside. 

“I will soon,” Thrawn soothed.

“Krayt spit,” Eli murmured. His pupils were blown. He reached out with an uncoordinated hand and patted Thrawn’s knee. “Stay with me?”

Thrawn stretched out next to Eli on the bed and held him as close as he dared. “For as long as you will have me,” Thrawn promised.

Eli was already asleep.

It was tempting, very tempting to stay there holding Eli close as he slept.

But that kind of protective gesture only worked in children’s stories, and the Shi’ido’s certainty that it would get out eventually weighed on Thrawn’s mind. If it did Eli was defenseless. They needed a way out of this place as soon as possible.

Thrawn disentangled himself from Eli, maneuvered himself carefully to sit on the edge of the bed, and booted up the computer console.

The Shi’ido had re-routed control of the main generator, the animal pens, and the pumps to the maintenance computer system. But now that Eli had patched their computer into the Shi’ido’s network Thrawn could examine what the Shi’ido had set up. The generator was more than powerful enough to handle both the pump and the pens. In fact its removal from the standard grid was likely causing the electrical issues the rest of the facility was suffering.

Luwe’s certainty that the animal pens wouldn’t hold him for long drove Thrawn to examine the pens’ systems in detail.

Behind him Eli shifted, uneasy in his sleep. Thrawn laid a hand in Eli’s hair. Eli relaxed minutely. 

There was an automatic check hidden in the pen’s systems, every 36 hours the door of the pens opened if they were closed.

In six hours the door the Shi’ido was locked behind would open, unless Thrawn could find a way to stop it.

Thrawn set about digging into the computer’s programs one-handed.

* * *

Eli wasn’t sure why he woke up at first. But then he realized it was too quiet. The pumps had stopped. Thrawn sat on the bed beside him, working at the computer. 

“You did it,” Eli said. 

Thrawn looked down at him. “Yes. I’ve just re-routed power to our beacon.”

From somewhere in the facility an echoing wail rose, rattling the walls. 

“Well that’s not creepy,” Eli muttered.

“The natural cavern is full of kyber crystals- and other jewels. Luwe's been digging them out this whole time, and keeping people away with the haunted mine story. He was almost ready to leave when we arrived. He has a small multi-atmosphere craft in the cave and there's an underwater entrance. He was planning on caving in the mine around the crystal cave, so he could continue mining the cave without having to maintain his charade. He was using the main generator to run all his excavations, including the pumps.”

“You just flooded his treasure room,” Eli said.

Thrawn's smirked, “Yes.”

“What about the Animal Pens?” Eli asked. 

“Also running off the primary generator.” Thrawn reassured him. “Luwe is still securely locked up.”

“Good, I- good.”

Thrawn’s comm crackled to life. 

“This is Captain Faro of the ISD Chimaera, sir do you copy?”

Thrawn smiled his Chiss smile. “Captain Faro, this Commodore Thrawn. Code 1138. I need a Serious Trauma Medical Team and a Class E detainment chamber as soon as you can get them to me.”

“Yes sir! We’ll get those to you ASAP. Can I get a sit-rep for the medical team sir?”

He and Thrawn shared a look. ‘For the medical team’ riiiight. But Thrawn indulged Karyn anyway, “Lieutenant Commander Vanto has serious spinal trauma- he is stable, awake, and has full feeling in his lower extremities.”

When Thrawn had finished giving Karyn instructions Eli tugged on his arm until Thrawn laid down with him again.

“The Chimaera is on it's way.” he protested even as he let Eli drape his arm across Eli's torso. Thrawn rolled onto his side to reach better.

“They'll be at least two hours getting all that stuff ready- maybe more,” Eli said. “ And we'd have to let them in to the Medbay anyway.”

Thrawn frowned. “ I suppose.”

Eli smiled, and laid his arm over Thrawn's.

“Hello, my name is Mitth'raw'nuruodo and I like art and being absolutely perfect at everything.” Eli said in a piss-poor imitation of Thrawn's tone and voice. 

“I am hardly perfect,” Thrawn protested.

“And that's fine,” Eli said. “No one is, and you're better at your job than any other officer I've ever met.”

Thrawn considered this for a long moment. “I suppose,” he said at last. He reached out with his free hand and took Eli's. “ I imagine I'll feel more certain of that once we're out of here and you are well.”

“No yeah, this place is terrible.” Eli agreed.

Thrawn drew Eli closer to him and hummed thoughtfully. “ It's _Mitth'raw'nuruodo_ by the way.”

Eli regarded Thrawn suspiciously. “Say it again?”

“ _Mitth'raw'nuruodo._ ”

“Mitth'raw'n- no wait... _Mitth'raw'nuruodo_.”

Thrawn smiled. “Just so.” He gently pressed his lips to Eli's temple. “I should teach you Cheunh.”

“I'd like that.” Eli agreed.

“Here, a test if you will.” Thrawn said, then rattled off a long string of unfamiliar words.

It took a few tries, but soon Eli recited, “Ch'eo nuhn carcir Eli'vanto vim ch'ah am nah ban mah carcim ch'aca cah ea ch'atah.”

Thrawn was smirking, “ Very good.”

“What did I say?”

“My name is Eli Vanto and I am bad at impressions.”

* * *

Eli wound up spending three days in a bacta tank. He slept through most of it of course- but he did remember waking once. The medbay had been dark around him- except for a pair of glowing red points.

It took an unforgivably long time for Eli to realize it was Thrawn. Watching him.

Eli frowned. Thrawn wouldn’t have come during his shift, and if the medbay was dark it was after hours.

Eli focused on the glass in front of him. Very slowly he began tracing letters on the glass- backwards.

‘GO,’ he spelled. The red eyes tipped to the side curiously and then Thrawn stepped closer.

‘TO’ Eli continued. He looked tired. Thrawn very rarely showed things like exhaustion, but he looked so tired now. Hopefully he’d listen to Eli.

‘BED’ he finished.

Thrawn’s eyebrows shot up. 

Oh wait…

‘SIR’ he added hastily.

Thrawn smiled. He met Eli’s eyes and nodded once.

Thrawn turned to go, but paused by the control panel for the tank. He hit the speaker button- meant to allow the medical staff to communicate with the patient in the tank. 

“Rest well Eli.”

* * *

Eli requested entry into Thrawn’s quarters and then stood fidgeting in the hall. There wasn’t any reason for him to be nervous, he tried to convince himself. They’d already taken the big leap back on Lighnipi.

After a few long seconds the door opened- and there was Thrawn, watching him like a man lost in the desert watched a cool spring.

“Hi,” Eli said softly. “Sir,” he added, just in case. They were still in a public hallway.

“I ordered medbay to tell me when you were released,” Thrawn said.

Eli took a half step forward, and Thrawn drew back, letting Eli in to his quarters.

“I told the nurse not to bother,” he explained. “Since I was going to report to you immediately anyway.” The door slid shut behind him.

“It’s _still_ a breach in protocol.” Thrawn insisted- then he stepped close and gently cupped Eli’s cheek. “Are you well?” he murmured.

Eli tilted his head into Thrawn’s palm and smiled. “I’m fine. The doctor put me on light duty for the next week as a precaution, but as long as we don’t do anything interesting for a week I should be just fine.”

Thrawn wrapped an arm around Eli’s waist and pulled him in close, “I cannot promise we won’t do anything _interesting_ , but I will endeavor to keep us out of trouble for a week.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> The sentry was dead before Eli even set foot in the mine.
> 
> I came up with a ridiculous amount of backstory for this fic- including what exactly the Imperial Reproductive Protection Act is.
> 
> I stretched the available Cheunh translating sites to their limits to come up with the phrase Thrawn teaches Eli. As such what the phrase actually translates to is "My name is Eli Vanto and I am not good at being like someone else."


End file.
